The Beginning
Several years ago at Florida State University (FSU), the question was asked…why don’t the campus recreation athletes receive the same treatment and care as the student-athletes do in the Athletic Department? The answer to that question served as a catalyst for dialogue between the Athletic Training and Sports Sciences faculty from the FSU College of Human Sciences, Director of University Health Services, Medical Director of Health and Wellness Center, and the Director of Campus Recreation and affiliated staff. Specific strategies started to emerge about the possibilities of comprehensive, on-campus, sports medicine care for all FSU students who were physically active. Read more

Is the writing on the wall for Sport Club programs as we know them? The issue that has the potential to severely impact higher risk Sport Clubs is concussions. It’s hard to ignore recent news reports about concussions – particularly in the NFL, and more recently in the NCAA (check out class action lawsuit report: http://ow.ly/qgQa306BuUu

In Canada, the Federal Government has announced significant funding to develop ‘national concussion management guidelines’: http://ow.ly/hI5x306Dq4t, with the injury-prevention charity Parachute (www.parachutecanada.org) tasked with ‘leading the development of harmonized concussion protocols through an advisory committee that includes doctors, teachers and coaches from across the country’.

In addition, with more and more concussions being reported, and the number of concussion-related lawsuits increasing dramatically, the Insurance industry has taken notice. A major insurer in the North American market has recently made a decision to exclude coverage of all traumatic brain injuries (this would include concussions) for all colleges, universities, educational institutions, municipalities and school districts. This new directive would be implemented on the policy renewal date. A wake up call indeed!

So it’s not a big stretch to realize that this issue is going to trickle down to Campus Recreation – sooner as opposed to later. Read more

What is a reasonable approach to concussion management in Campus Recreation – particularly in Sport Clubs and Intramurals?

As a minimum, your department needs to develop concussion protocols which apply to Campus Recreation as a whole. A good starting point might be the Varsity program at your school – find out what they are doing and see if their protocols can be applied to Campus Recreation.

In addition to this, it is important that a ‘Concussion Education Program’ be developed and implemented for Campus Recreation, focusing onAwareness/Education Recognition

The dreaded words ‘Code Red in the Weight Room’ spat out from the Front Desk’s walkie-talkie (Code Red signifies a serious medical emergency). The student supervisor reacted immediately by calling 911 – and reading from a pre-prepared script taped to the desk, told the operator the facility address and exact location of where the fire department or ambulance should come. She then went to meet the emergency responders, and led them to the weight room.

Meanwhile in the weight room, the student supervisor was applying CPR to the male client who had collapsed of an apparent heart attack (it turns out that the client was dead before he hit the floor). The fire department arrived first and took over the scene. Read more

Interested in finding out how your risk management practices measure up relative to industry-wide ‘Best Practices’ across North America?

What’s the problem?
Many campus recreation departments across North America don’t know what the current Best Practices are in Campus Recreation, and how their school’s practices compare with those at other schools. Are you one of them?

This leads to…
Operating in a vacuum – when you’re not sure if you are falling behind, and hence are unknowingly increasing your liability exposure.

What’s the solution?
Investing in a Best Practices approach to risk assessment and planning puts you in control! Read more

The following provides a brief description and overview of the Campus Recreation ‘Best Practices Risk Assessment Tool’. For more information on how the tool was developed, tested and piloted, visit the SportRisk website at www.sportrisk.com/best-practices/methodology

• Best Practices surveys were developed by a group of experts in their field (in the US and Canada) then vetted by staff at various schools across North America. Surveys were piloted at 8 schools (4 in the U.S. ; 4 in Canada) before final implementation. Read more